Red Moon

It was near the midnight when the moon rose in the sky. There were no clouds to be seen, yet there was a sense of cover up over our heads, like if something could protect us with an incorporeal body. The dark of the sky quickly turned into vivid colours and rays, beams and beacons of light. However, the light was as red and bright as the blood over the snow. The Red Moon rose.

The sky turned from black to red, including all types of yellows and oranges in between. It was warm at sight, but cold in the heart, since the Red Moon was never a great sign for the living beings that crawled over the soil. The Red Moon asked for more blood, as it was, through the lust of violence and the joy of pain. We all knew it, so we were prepared for it.

As the Moon reached its highest point, we closed the door of the cave and prepared ourselves to spend a long night full of muffled cries of help and wild howls calling for more entities to feast on a prey. It wasn’t pleasant at all, and, at the end of the night, when the sun rose one more time, there was always a person that had lost the lucidity and turned unrecognizable for ever. We had our tricks to avoid it as much as possible, but the risk to survive was there.

However, that night were different, and nothing has been the same since then.

Lucy was quiet, more than usual, but her body was shaking since the second hour. At the fourth one, she started biting her nails and looking around her when the cries filled the air outside the cave.

I have to… I must… – she started mumbling, quietly but increasing its volume each time she repeated those words.

I can’t… Mark, I’m sorry, but I can’t. – she replied, and her brother hugged her, moving her up from the ground.

No! Lucy, no! Listen to me! Everything is fine! Stop listening to them! Focus on the game, focus on the stories everyone is sharing! Your life is more precious than that! Stay with us! – he was shouting, making the children, and even the adults, feel more fear than before. He was just avoiding the inevitable, but his senses were just asking him to stop her.

No!! Let me go!! I can’t stay here!! Let me go, I don’t want to hurt you!! – Lucy was screaming, with a high pitch in her voice that wasn’t there before.

Some of the other adults stepped up and went towards Mark. They also knew what was going to happen, but, more importantly, they also knew what she was going to do if they didn’t free her quickly. Her brother wasn’t able to think further that what he was seeing, his sister, but that person was turning quickly into something new, wilder and more dangerous than anyone they could have seen before. They took Mark from his arms, pulling them back, while some other adults were moving towards the entry of the cave, where huge rocks were blocking the path. They had to be quick and efficient, to let Lucy go out without anything from the exterior getting in.

Suddenly, a cry of pain filled the cave and Mark went down over his knees. His hands were covering his face, full of red blood, as well as Lucy’s mouth and nails. The adults took their blades, swords and any kind of sharp weapon they prepared for that night, and pointed towards Lucy, threatening her.

Go away, Lucy. We know you are still there, but it won’t last long. They will open the cave and you will run. It has been nice to meet you. – One of the adults talked to Lucy, as she was breathing heavily and looking at them with crazy eyes. But she managed to nod a “yes” before moving towards the entry of the cave.

Far-… Farewell. – she fought to say those words, in a voice that was more of a monster than of a human.

Her body slipped in between the rocks and, a second later, everything was closed and all the adults were helping Mark, who cried silently.

Nevertheless, that night, one of the children looked at the moon, that Red Moon, during the second when the door of the cave was open. And he found it the prettiest single thing he had ever seen. The bloody image of the satellite was burned into his mind and, at that moment, he knew, someday, somehow, he will join Lucy, and all the crazy people that went savage for her. But those people, suddenly, didn’t seem that crazy to him. Because he understood, at the tender age of 6, that his life will be forever devout to her, whatever the cost, the Goddess of Blood.

That child was me, and tonight the Red Moon rises again in the dark sky.

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